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December 29, 2005
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Tuesday's Links
Activism
Operation Truth. The mission of Operation Truth, the largest Iraqi veterans' group in America, is to make a connection between the American public and troops serving (or who have previously served) in Afghanistan and Iraq. The focus is two-fold: Giving servicemembers a voice by allowing them to speak directly about what life is like in Iraq, and to involve itself in public debates about US military action and how veterans are treated by the nation that sends them into war. There's a ton of information about the area and our involvement in it, as well as first-person accounts from troops in Iraq. Additionally, the website presents the issues facing our troops both in Iraq and at home, information about OpTruth vets speaking at colleges around the country, and more besides. Find out how you can spread the word about Operation Truth, and take the discussion to the media and your representatives.
News
Why Bush Has to Fire Rove. Rove sure has been in the news a lot lately, and it looks like the media might actually be latching on. In today's White House Press Briefing, reporters repeatedly questioned Scott McClellan on Rove's involvement in the Valerie Plame case as well as the Bush administration's previous statements that a) anyone involved in leaking this information would be deal with and b) Karl Rove was not involved. McClellan declined to answer the majority of questions, citing the ongoing investigation, but David Corn writes that it doesn't really matter what Rove's exact involvement is: Either Rove knowingly outed Plame as political punishment for dissent or he, oops, accidentally leaked classified information. Either way, as Bush's senior advisor and chief political strategist, this issue might force Bush's hand and Rove may be out of wriggle room.
Halliburton's Higher Bill. In all the stories of no-bid contracts and dodgy billing practices, the name of one corporation consistently rises to the top: Halliburton. Sweetheart deal after sweetheart deal lands in this company's lap, even as questions linger about its billing practices and billions of dollars literally go missing in Iraq. The US Army has just ordered five billion dollars in services from Halliburton for logistics support of US Troops in Iraq, and that's a billion more than similar services cost last year. In March, 2003, President Bush said that combat in Iraq would cost about sixty billion; a big difference. Halliburton's former chief executive just happens to be our own Vice President, Dick Cheney; he claims there's no connection between his position and Halliburton's intimate involvement in Iraq. But when the Army continues ordering work from a company it's citing for unreasonable billing practices, it really makes you wonder whether this is just more of the same from the truth-challenged Bush administration.
Fall Cases on Hot-Button Issues May Hinge on the New Justice. Just last week Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement, and everybody's waiting for Chief Justice William Rehnquist to drop the other shoe. Bush continues to insist he has no "litmus test" for judges, and that appointments are made based on the judge's qualification and adherence to merely interpretating the law. Yet with one, and probably two, Supreme Court seats opening up Bush has a golden opportunity to swing the Supreme Court decidedly to the right. Justice O'Connor was a key vote in many of the Court's decisions concerning privacy and civil rights, and all sides are gearing up for what may well be Bush's toughest confirmation battles of all. An appointment to the Supreme Court is for life, and anybody he places there now will spend decades deciding our most important cases.
Editorials
Why Dems Must Find the Guts to Ask the Big National Security Questions. Terrorists attacked us almost four years ago, yet in the time since Bush has spent over three hundred billion dollars in Iraq while underfunding Homeland Security where we most need to be protected. David Sirota says it's time for Dems to step up: As Republicans use the London bombings to bring national security to the forefront for yet another election cycle, Democrats are fearing to "politicize" the tragedy. This is a tactic that always plays to GOP strengths: Come out strong and swinging, criticize your enemies when they don't, then criticize them when they do. Politics is ultimately about controlling the debate, and Republican leaders seize it by the scruff of the neck and drag it wherever they want. It's time for Democratic leaders to stop being cowed by the right-wing rhetoric and making a few swings of their own. And it's time for you to let YOUR Democratic representatives know you want them to throw a few punches, instead of just absorbing them.
How I Became an Ex-Conservative. A lifelong conservative noticed one day that the National Debt actually went down under Democrat Bill Clinton, unlike the two Republicans who bookend him. This caused him to think about changing his previous views "of the benefits of increasing investment capital by reducing taxes on corporations." The failure, he states, is that investment capital is a much less potent force than what actually drives an economy: consumer demand. Swing by and check out his reasoning over at Unlawfulcombatant, a blog for "economic populist commentary."
Karl Rove - Soft on Terror. Karl Rove is hurting the War on Terror. The thing is, Valerie Plame, the much-mentioned CIA operative outed a while back in the press, was an intelligence asset working on finding those WMDs we want to keep out of terrorists' hands. Whoever leaked her identity took a working piece of the intelligence machine and rendered it completely useless. By putting politics first to punish dissent, Rove damaged our ability to fight those terrorists that Bush is so worried about. Olbermann's story of an unattended bag highlights why people like Rove shouldn't be pulling the big levers.
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December 29, 2005
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Tuesday's Links
Activism
Operation Truth. The mission of Operation Truth, the largest Iraqi veterans' group in America, is to make a connection between the American public and troops serving (or who have previously served) in Afghanistan and Iraq. The focus is two-fold: Giving servicemembers a voice by allowing them to speak directly about what life is like in Iraq, and to involve itself in public debates about US military action and how veterans are treated by the nation that sends them into war. There's a ton of information about the area and our involvement in it, as well as first-person accounts from troops in Iraq. Additionally, the website presents the issues facing our troops both in Iraq and at home, information about OpTruth vets speaking at colleges around the country, and more besides. Find out how you can spread the word about Operation Truth, and take the discussion to the media and your representatives.
News
Why Bush Has to Fire Rove. Rove sure has been in the news a lot lately, and it looks like the media might actually be latching on. In today's White House Press Briefing, reporters repeatedly questioned Scott McClellan on Rove's involvement in the Valerie Plame case as well as the Bush administration's previous statements that a) anyone involved in leaking this information would be deal with and b) Karl Rove was not involved. McClellan declined to answer the majority of questions, citing the ongoing investigation, but David Corn writes that it doesn't really matter what Rove's exact involvement is: Either Rove knowingly outed Plame as political punishment for dissent or he, oops, accidentally leaked classified information. Either way, as Bush's senior advisor and chief political strategist, this issue might force Bush's hand and Rove may be out of wriggle room.
Halliburton's Higher Bill. In all the stories of no-bid contracts and dodgy billing practices, the name of one corporation consistently rises to the top: Halliburton. Sweetheart deal after sweetheart deal lands in this company's lap, even as questions linger about its billing practices and billions of dollars literally go missing in Iraq. The US Army has just ordered five billion dollars in services from Halliburton for logistics support of US Troops in Iraq, and that's a billion more than similar services cost last year. In March, 2003, President Bush said that combat in Iraq would cost about sixty billion; a big difference. Halliburton's former chief executive just happens to be our own Vice President, Dick Cheney; he claims there's no connection between his position and Halliburton's intimate involvement in Iraq. But when the Army continues ordering work from a company it's citing for unreasonable billing practices, it really makes you wonder whether this is just more of the same from the truth-challenged Bush administration.
Fall Cases on Hot-Button Issues May Hinge on the New Justice. Just last week Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement, and everybody's waiting for Chief Justice William Rehnquist to drop the other shoe. Bush continues to insist he has no "litmus test" for judges, and that appointments are made based on the judge's qualification and adherence to merely interpretating the law. Yet with one, and probably two, Supreme Court seats opening up Bush has a golden opportunity to swing the Supreme Court decidedly to the right. Justice O'Connor was a key vote in many of the Court's decisions concerning privacy and civil rights, and all sides are gearing up for what may well be Bush's toughest confirmation battles of all. An appointment to the Supreme Court is for life, and anybody he places there now will spend decades deciding our most important cases.
Editorials
Why Dems Must Find the Guts to Ask the Big National Security Questions. Terrorists attacked us almost four years ago, yet in the time since Bush has spent over three hundred billion dollars in Iraq while underfunding Homeland Security where we most need to be protected. David Sirota says it's time for Dems to step up: As Republicans use the London bombings to bring national security to the forefront for yet another election cycle, Democrats are fearing to "politicize" the tragedy. This is a tactic that always plays to GOP strengths: Come out strong and swinging, criticize your enemies when they don't, then criticize them when they do. Politics is ultimately about controlling the debate, and Republican leaders seize it by the scruff of the neck and drag it wherever they want. It's time for Democratic leaders to stop being cowed by the right-wing rhetoric and making a few swings of their own. And it's time for you to let YOUR Democratic representatives know you want them to throw a few punches, instead of just absorbing them.
How I Became an Ex-Conservative. A lifelong conservative noticed one day that the National Debt actually went down under Democrat Bill Clinton, unlike the two Republicans who bookend him. This caused him to think about changing his previous views "of the benefits of increasing investment capital by reducing taxes on corporations." The failure, he states, is that investment capital is a much less potent force than what actually drives an economy: consumer demand. Swing by and check out his reasoning over at Unlawfulcombatant, a blog for "economic populist commentary."
Karl Rove - Soft on Terror. Karl Rove is hurting the War on Terror. The thing is, Valerie Plame, the much-mentioned CIA operative outed a while back in the press, was an intelligence asset working on finding those WMDs we want to keep out of terrorists' hands. Whoever leaked her identity took a working piece of the intelligence machine and rendered it completely useless. By putting politics first to punish dissent, Rove damaged our ability to fight those terrorists that Bush is so worried about. Olbermann's story of an unattended bag highlights why people like Rove shouldn't be pulling the big levers.
|
December 29, 2005
Operation Truth. The mission of Operation Truth, the largest Iraqi veterans' group in America, is to make a connection between the American public and troops serving (or who have previously served) in Afghanistan and Iraq. The focus is two-fold: Giving servicemembers a voice by allowing them to speak directly about what life is like in Iraq, and to involve itself in public debates about US military action and how veterans are treated by the nation that sends them into war. There's a ton of information about the area and our involvement in it, as well as first-person accounts from troops in Iraq. Additionally, the website presents the issues facing our troops both in Iraq and at home, information about OpTruth vets speaking at colleges around the country, and more besides. Find out how you can spread the word about Operation Truth, and take the discussion to the media and your representatives.
News
Why Bush Has to Fire Rove. Rove sure has been in the news a lot lately, and it looks like the media might actually be latching on. In today's White House Press Briefing, reporters repeatedly questioned Scott McClellan on Rove's involvement in the Valerie Plame case as well as the Bush administration's previous statements that a) anyone involved in leaking this information would be deal with and b) Karl Rove was not involved. McClellan declined to answer the majority of questions, citing the ongoing investigation, but David Corn writes that it doesn't really matter what Rove's exact involvement is: Either Rove knowingly outed Plame as political punishment for dissent or he, oops, accidentally leaked classified information. Either way, as Bush's senior advisor and chief political strategist, this issue might force Bush's hand and Rove may be out of wriggle room.
Halliburton's Higher Bill. In all the stories of no-bid contracts and dodgy billing practices, the name of one corporation consistently rises to the top: Halliburton. Sweetheart deal after sweetheart deal lands in this company's lap, even as questions linger about its billing practices and billions of dollars literally go missing in Iraq. The US Army has just ordered five billion dollars in services from Halliburton for logistics support of US Troops in Iraq, and that's a billion more than similar services cost last year. In March, 2003, President Bush said that combat in Iraq would cost about sixty billion; a big difference. Halliburton's former chief executive just happens to be our own Vice President, Dick Cheney; he claims there's no connection between his position and Halliburton's intimate involvement in Iraq. But when the Army continues ordering work from a company it's citing for unreasonable billing practices, it really makes you wonder whether this is just more of the same from the truth-challenged Bush administration.
Fall Cases on Hot-Button Issues May Hinge on the New Justice. Just last week Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement, and everybody's waiting for Chief Justice William Rehnquist to drop the other shoe. Bush continues to insist he has no "litmus test" for judges, and that appointments are made based on the judge's qualification and adherence to merely interpretating the law. Yet with one, and probably two, Supreme Court seats opening up Bush has a golden opportunity to swing the Supreme Court decidedly to the right. Justice O'Connor was a key vote in many of the Court's decisions concerning privacy and civil rights, and all sides are gearing up for what may well be Bush's toughest confirmation battles of all. An appointment to the Supreme Court is for life, and anybody he places there now will spend decades deciding our most important cases.
Editorials
Why Dems Must Find the Guts to Ask the Big National Security Questions. Terrorists attacked us almost four years ago, yet in the time since Bush has spent over three hundred billion dollars in Iraq while underfunding Homeland Security where we most need to be protected. David Sirota says it's time for Dems to step up: As Republicans use the London bombings to bring national security to the forefront for yet another election cycle, Democrats are fearing to "politicize" the tragedy. This is a tactic that always plays to GOP strengths: Come out strong and swinging, criticize your enemies when they don't, then criticize them when they do. Politics is ultimately about controlling the debate, and Republican leaders seize it by the scruff of the neck and drag it wherever they want. It's time for Democratic leaders to stop being cowed by the right-wing rhetoric and making a few swings of their own. And it's time for you to let YOUR Democratic representatives know you want them to throw a few punches, instead of just absorbing them.
How I Became an Ex-Conservative. A lifelong conservative noticed one day that the National Debt actually went down under Democrat Bill Clinton, unlike the two Republicans who bookend him. This caused him to think about changing his previous views "of the benefits of increasing investment capital by reducing taxes on corporations." The failure, he states, is that investment capital is a much less potent force than what actually drives an economy: consumer demand. Swing by and check out his reasoning over at Unlawfulcombatant, a blog for "economic populist commentary."
Karl Rove - Soft on Terror. Karl Rove is hurting the War on Terror. The thing is, Valerie Plame, the much-mentioned CIA operative outed a while back in the press, was an intelligence asset working on finding those WMDs we want to keep out of terrorists' hands. Whoever leaked her identity took a working piece of the intelligence machine and rendered it completely useless. By putting politics first to punish dissent, Rove damaged our ability to fight those terrorists that Bush is so worried about. Olbermann's story of an unattended bag highlights why people like Rove shouldn't be pulling the big levers.
